How to make beer cheese dip for veggies.
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Go straight to our Tips on Fixing Broken Beer Cheese Dip
Beer Cheese Basics
Thousands of pages and entire books have been written about pairing beer and cheese. About the amazing interaction between beer's carbonation and bitterness and the fatty coating cheese leaves on the tongue. About the flavors in each complementing or contrasting each other, creating veritable explosions of taste in one's mouth.
We agree - craft beer and cheese are so good together that it is actually hard to find a bad way to pair them. Unless of course you go with a flavorless mass produced, corn syrup loaded lager and an equally blunt processed cheese. Ugh! Don't do it!
When it comes to melting cheese in beer, we frequently use cow's milk Gouda or Gruyere. For this beer cheese dip we didn't deviate from our 'go to' cheese.
Chris chose Kannah Creek Brewing Co. Vertical Drop Robust Red Ale for the beer component. It has very pronounced dark toast flavor and malt sweetness and is very well balanced, without excessive bitterness (ABV 6.2%, IBU 40). Perfect to blend with our Gouda.
Even though melting cheese in a liquid is pretty much a no brainer in terms of required steps, we have found that some Gouda style cheeses melt better than others.
On a broader scale there are cheeses that are just not melting type cheeses, so no matter how well they pair with a certain craft beer style, they refuse to become cheese sauce.
There are also certain things you could inadvertently do while whisking your beer and cheese that may cause them to act as if they dislike each other, not giving you what you want. Think a bunch of tight, protein lumps swimming in a thin (even though tasty), whey looking liquid.
In order to avoid such outcome, be sure to:
- shred the cheese and toss it in flour (this will improve the quality of the melting process)
- do not add cheese to liquid that is scolding hot
- add the cheese slowly, in batches
Gouda needs very mild heat to begin melting so Chris cooled off the simmering liquid containing the beer a little and slowly added the cheese. We've actually had better results with a six month aged Gouda imported from the Netherlands (still considered young in terms of ageing) which comes in a yellow wax, so if you see it, we recommend it over the red wax one. Smoked Gouda is excellent for making beer cheese dip.
How to Fix Your Beer Cheese Dip if it Breaks
Suppose you did everything right. You coated your room temperature cheese in flour or corn starch and you added it in batches to the beer base that was not too hot... And then it broke.
This is what you should do to fix it.
Take out your trusty hand held immersion blender and put it to work. Alternatively, transfer the broken beer cheese dip into a blender and pulse it on low until the lumps of cheese appear to be more or less incorporated back into the liquid.
Strain (through a sieve) and transfer the mixture back into a sauce pan. Add about ¼ cup of heavy whipping cream to it. Heat it up on low and stir until the mixture becomes nice and silky. If it appears to be too thin, mix a slurry (1 tablespoon corn starch + 1 tablespoon cold water) and slowly add it to the beer cheese as you keep stirring. This should thicken it.
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Recipe
Beer Cheese Dip (Gouda & Red Ale or make it uniquely yours)
Ingredients
- 3 cups shredded cheese choose a good melting cheese like Gouda, Gruyere, Fontina, Cheddar, Emmentaler
- ¼ cup plus 2 tablespoon flour
- 2 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 1 12 oz craft beer choose a flavorful, low bitterness ale or lager
- ¼ cup heavy cream
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Shred the cheese and bring it to room temperature. Toss in the ¼ flour making sure it is well coated and set aside.
- Melt the butter in a pan over medium heat. Stir in the 2 tablespoon of flour to form a roux.
- Slowly add the beer while stirring to incorporate.
- Remove from heat, add the cream and stir. Let the mixture cool off. You must be patient at this step - adding cheese to a hot liquid base will cause the cheese to clump. If you can touch the liquid base with your finger and it feels very warm, but does not burn your finger, the mixture has cooled off sufficiently.
- Gradually, in small portions, add the corn starch (or flour) coated cheese, stirring gently and slowly with a whisk or fork until all the cheese is incorporated.
- Taste and season with salt and pepper as needed. Serve immediately.
Charles
What's your opinion on the use of sodium citrate to emulsify the cheese with the beer?
CraftBeering
It will work to help make a cheese more melty, especially older cheeses, the beer is not an obstacle, but we find that the resulting cheese sauce acquires a plastic like quality. We'd always prefer to simply use a good melting cheese.
Ann Beth
Thank you for helping me remedy my beer cheese debacle! I am so glad I found your "fix-it" instructions!
CraftBeering
Glad they were helpful, Ann Beth! Thank you for stopping by.
Marissa | Squirrels of a Feather
I would just drink the cheese dip along with some beer XP
Allison
I used this beer cheese like a pasta sauce. A bolw of cooked linguini, some browned beef and then a ladle of beer cheese. No leftovers.
Danielle Novinsky
Mmm. We used a smoked beer with regular gouda and the flavors really worked out. I think it is better to use flour than corn starch.
Andy
Worked out great for me. Followed instructions and my gouda cheese melted easily. Tasty. Thank you for the info on beer.
Erika
Well, bummer. I offered to make this, along with home made soft pretzels, for my husband's bottle share tonight. He's expecting a crowd so I doubled it. I used an Oaklore Brown Ale and Gruyere cheese. Despite patiently following the directions to a T (not my first cheese sauce), I have an unincorporated gloppy mess... I guess that's what I get for trying a new dish on the "day of". Hoping I have better luck next time. At least the pretzels turned out...
Erika
I FIXED IT!!!! Apparently my definition of "patent" is not the same as the cheese's definition. For any other readers who suffer the same, here's what I did: I poured the entire mess into my VitaMix and blended on low for about 2 min. Strained it back into the sauce pan and added about 2-3 more tablespoons of heavy cream (the also helps reincorporate cheese sauces - like if you have leftover Alfredo the next day that had broken down). Simmered on VERY low heat, and added a slurry of water & cornstarch to thicken. Let it simmer, whisking regularly, until thickened. MAGIC!! Deliicious, DELICIOUS magic!! Thanks for a great recipe, and detailed steps that let me figure out where I went wrong. Cheers!!
CraftBeering
Hi Erika,
Happy to hear that you were able to fix the separated cheese! Yes, blenders always work like magic if you ended up with clumps, but the reason for ending up with them is always one and the same - the cheese was added to a liquid base that was too hot. Excessive heat always results in clumping. It has happened to me even making simple cream only cheese sauce for mac and cheese for kiddo...Sometimes the pan where the butter and beer base are heated up can stay hotter for longer and keep the base hotter longer in result. Depends on the pan. Beginning with a small addition of shredded cheese to the beer base helps determine the temperature - if it begins to clump, it was too early and you can easily remove the few clumps and let it cool off a little more.
Thank you for sharing your experience and method of fixing the cheese sauce post clumping:)
Erika
Thanks so much - great advice, I appreciate it!!
Leanna
Your photography makes me hungry, its always so beautiful. Bringing the cheese to room temperature with a dusting of flour is a brilliant idea that I did not know and I really appreciate the knowledge.
Lovely post as always. Pinning and sharing.
CraftBeering
Thank you Leanna! We appreciate your patronage:) Hope to make a craft beer fan out of you one day so when we come to visit BC again we can meet up and go to a local brewery together!
Jessica
This recipe looks so yummy!
Question: Could I make it ahead a few hours and keep warm in a mini crock pot until ready to serve? Curious if you think I'll have issues given your concerns about heat and the cheese clumping while melting.
I'd love to make for an event I have coming up, but logistically would need to prep ahead.
CraftBeering
Hi Jessica, thank you! Chris says that as long as you keep the temperature setting of the crock pot on low just to keep it warm, the beer cheese dip should be fine for a few hours. Low heat is the key. Maybe give it a stir once in a while if possible. So glad you will give it a try!
Lizzie
Thanks for the technique tips, especially on cheese choice and liquid temperature. Since both cheese and beer are delicate, care must be taken! I'm thinking Guinness and smoked gouda ...
CraftBeering
Oh yes! The smoked Gouda is going to loooove your plan:)
Miz Helen
This is a delicious dip that we will really enjoy! Thanks so much for sharing with us at Full Plate Thursday. Have a great week and come back soon!
Miz Helen
CraftBeering
Thank you Miz Helen!
Nicoletta @sugarlovespices
I want to do this beer cheese dip and dip as many grilled veggies as I can possibly eat! Love it. Don't think I've ever had it but love everything about it. Gouda sounds the right choice to me, yum!
CraftBeering
Thanks Nicoletta - maybe the best part of the dip is that it can convince one to eat a lot more veggies than usual:)
Jennifer @ Seasons and Suppers
Absolutely beautiful and that dip sounds unbelievably delicious 🙂 Loving all your great tips for a great cheese dip, too!
CraftBeering
Thank you Jennifer! You sure know how to throw a casual party, I was just over reading your new post:)
Dawn - Girl Heart Food
Great tips there, Milena! So, I'm thinking that because you served this with veggies, it's actually healthy. Let's forget about the cheese, cream and beer 😉 That means I can eat away at it....hehehe. I'm pretty sure that I could eat this entire thing all by myself. I mean, MELTED cheese!!! Love it! Have an awesome weekend 🙂
CraftBeering
I think that you are right Dawn:)
Kelsie | the itsy-bitsy kitchen
I'm really wishing I had a big bowl of this in front of me right now. All those roasted veggies PLUS cheese make this my kind of dinner :). Totally fabulous, Milena! Have a great weekend!
CraftBeering
Thank you Kelsie! Makes the perfect summer dinner:)